DeMaio again pushes for outsourcing ballot

SAN DIEGO: City voters may be asked again to vote on whether to outsource San Diego services as a cost-saving measure.

Councilman Carl DeMaio and a group of building contractors are scheduled Monday to announce a ballot initiative titled “Competition and Transparency in City Contracting” for the November 2010 ballot.

An earlier initiative that allows the city to outsource government services through a process known as managed competition has stalled for years. Under Proposition C approved by voters in 2006, the city has to negotiate with labor unions on the rules for outsourcing, and city departments have the opportunity to make bids and go head to head with private contractors. The new ballot measure presumably would make it easier for the city to outsource.

Joining DeMaio on Monday at the news conference to announce the new initiative will be representatives of the Associated General Contractors, Associated Builders and Contractors and National Association of Minority Contractors.

Backers of the initiative have not yet started gathering signatures. They must first file the initiative with the City Clerk’s Office and get approval for the language of the measure.

HELEN GAO

Two destroyers to return to S.D. from Middle East

Two Navy destroyers will return to San Diego from Middle East deployments and a third that was recently built will arrive here for the first time early next week, Navy officials said.

The Decatur, scheduled to return Monday morning to San Diego Naval Base, deployed in May with the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group. The Reagan returned a month ago, but the Decatur was given a last-minute assignment for an official visit to Thailand and that kept it longer, said Dave Hostetler, a Naval Surface Forces spokesman. During its six-month cruise, the ship also defended two Iraqi oil terminals and inspected the cargoes of ships in the Persian Gulf and intercepted narcotics.

The John Paul Jones is expected to returned to the base Tuesday morning following a seven-month Persian Gulf deployment. The ship also helped to protect Iraqi oil terminals and tracked ballistic-missile defense launches. The crew made port visits to Manama in Bahrain, and Phuket, Thailand.

The third destroyer, the Dewey, is scheduled to arrive Tuesday afternoon after a voyage from its construction yard in Pascagoula, Miss. The ship was christened Jan. 26, 2008, and a commissioning ceremony is planned for March 6 at Seal Beach Naval Base.

STEVE LIEWER

Office of Education must pay claim, judge rules

SAN DIEGO: A Superior Court judge has rejected the San Diego County Office of Education’s effort to avoid paying a former employee who won a wrongful-termination claim.

The “petitioner is entitled to immediate payment of the funds,” Judge Steven R. Denton wrote in his order earlier this month.

The order does not specify how much money the county schools office should pay Rodger Hartnett, a former claims coordinator. The county Office of Education declined to discuss the legal case because an appeal is pending.

In a letter this week to lawyers for the schools office, Hartnett’s attorney demanded an immediate payment and his client’s reinstatement to his old job.